Bills get some national love from Dungy, Billick after big win

If national football pundits mostly ignored the Bills after two quiet early season home wins against the Jets and the Broncos, they aren’t doing so anymore now that Buffalo took down NFC champion Atlanta on the road.

Exhibits A and B: High praise for Buffalo from two Super Bowl-winning former coaches following Sunday’s 23-17 win over the previously undefeated Falcons.

“Big shoutout to the Detroit and Buffalo defenses,” said Tony Dungy, the former Indianapolis Colts coach who now serves as an analyst for NBC’s “Football Night in America,” on Twitter. “They keyed huge road wins for their teams today.” (Detroit defeated Minnesota, 14-7, on Sunday.)

Big shoutout to the Detroit and Buffalo defenses. They keyed huge road wins for their teams today.

Brian Billick, who coached the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl XXXV victory and now is an analyst on the NFL Network, seemed to mock the many league observers who dismissed the Bills’ postseason chances after the team’s offseason moves.

“Remember when Gilmore & Gillislee went to NE, Boldin retired, Darby & Watkins were traded and this was a ‘throw away’ season for the #Bills?” Billick wrote on Twitter.

Remember when Gilmore & Gillislee went to NE, Boldin retired, Darby & Watkins were traded and this was a "throw away" season for the #Bills?

Billick’s tweet quickly racked up more than 500 “likes” and 200 retweets. The former coach was referring to the free-agency departures of running back Mike Gillislee and defensive back Stephon Gilmore to division rival New England; the retirement of wide receiver Anquan Boldin after only a couple weeks with the Bills; and the offseason trades of wide receiver Sammy Watkins and cornerback Ronald Darby. Many viewed the loss of all those players as a bad omen for the Bills, at least in the short term.

Billick even used the Bills’ unexpected success to take a shot at the Super Bowl champion Patriots.

“#Bills are among the 7 teams that currently have a better record than #Patriots after week 4,” Billick tweeted. “This is the #NFL.”

#Rams and #Bills are among the 7 teams that currently have a better record than #Patriots after week 4. This is the #NFL.

But it was a current NFL coach, the Bills’ own Sean McDermott, who seemed to advise overexcited Bills fans – who have seen this movie before – to pump the brakes a bit.

Responding to a question about Sunday’s victory being the Bills’ biggest road win since the halcyon days of the early 1990s, McDermott answered that people making such pronouncements should “hold their horses.”

Q: “What if I told you this was the Bills biggest road win since their Super Bowl Era?”